I'm trying to confirm when Weir started using Super 80 "flying finger" pups. He definitely had them on 12/31/76, however, all my pics prior to then aren't clear enough to be sure.

The Super 80's first appear in the 1977 Ibanez catalogs, however, I thought Weir had them from the time he started playing Ibanez guitars. I'm starting to wonder if they existed at the time of '75 Kingfish, Blues for Allah & '76 tours. In the '76 catalogs, the Artists & Professional model, including the 2680 & 2681, had Super 70 pickups.

See if these links help out. In the 75 pics Weir man looks like he"s on the 2681 and in all the 76 pics i checked out he's playing the Cowboy. Don't know if that makes a difference. Anyways some good close ups in the 75 section.

On page 158 of "Grateful Dead Gear", there is a clear picture of Weir and the brown guitar with fancy inlays. At that point there were different pickups in the guitar. They are chrome with visible poles - Super 70's?

So...sometime between the Dead/Who shows (10/9 & 10/10/76) and 12/31/76, the Super 80's were installed in that guitar. The Dead played on 10/14 & 10/15 and their next show was on 12/31. My guess is that the Super 80's were installed during that break.

Still looking for pics of Weir's 75 & 76 guitars. Does anyone know of any 10/14/76 or 10/15/76 pics?